[R-sig-Debian] configure: error: --with-x=yes (default) and X11 headers/libs are not available

[Srinivasan, Sathish K]

Hi Dirk,
Thanks for the reply.
I read the link for pre-builds before I posted an email. However, I did not know the way to configure the installation directory using apt-get utility. This is the only reason, why I chose to build and compile the source package where I can configure the installation directory using --prefix option or by passing the directory name to the make command. Do have any suggestion for it please? I mean, if you use apt-get install, it will override the previous installation of R, right? My requirement is to hold onto 2 different versions of R in my system.

Also, this is the first time, I used build-dep feature of apt-get utility, so I have no prior knowledge of building packages for debian. 

In one of the stackoverflow answers, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8343686/how-to-install-2-different-r-versions-on-debian , you mentioned about "local debian build". What is it actually means? You refered diff.gz in your following answers. Could you please expound on it in detail or provide some reading links for it, if possible.

-Sathish
________________________________________
From: Dirk Eddelbuettel [edd at debian.org]
Sent: Friday, March 22, 2013 1:46 PM
To: Srinivasan, Sathish  K
Cc: r-sig-debian at r-project.org
Subject: [R-sig-Debian] configure: error: --with-x=yes (default) and X11 headers/libs are not available

On 21 March 2013 at 23:56, Srinivasan, Sathish  K wrote:
| Hi everyone,
| I am trying to install R.2.15.3 from the source code obtained from http://cran.cnr.Berkeley.edu/src/base/R-2/R-2.15.3.tar.gz  in my Debian version: Squeeze box.

That should exist pre-build.  Did you read

       http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian/

and indeed

       http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian/squeeze-cran/

contains 2.15.3 for squeeze.

| In order to have multiple versions of R in my system, I gave this command to configure.
|
| ./configure --prefix=/opt/R2.15.3/
|
| Subsequently, I got two warnings and one error message such as the following:
|
| configure: WARNING: you cannot build PDF versions of the R manuals
| configure: WARNING: you cannot build PDF versions of vignettes and help pages
| configure: error: --with-x=yes (default) and X11 headers/libs are not available
|
| Could someone direct me with a solution to the above issues. From the error messages, I can understand that I am not having the required X11 headers/libs, so what packages in debian squeeze should I have to install for the error messages to disappear during compilation of R source code.

Tim already helped you with this. In essence, you just misread the error message.

But you should not have to build this by hand unless you really need to (and
know how to).

Dirk

--
Dirk Eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org | http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com